Blair's tribute to Arafat breaks ranks with Bush

Tony Blair paid tribute to "a huge icon for the Palestinian people" yesterday, while suggesting that the death of Yasser Arafat had created an opportunity.

"The most important thing is to make sure we reinvigorate the peace process. Because there is misery for Palestinians, and there is misery for Israelis who suffer terrorist activity," the prime minister told GMTV before leaving for talks with George Bush in Washington.

Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, said Mr Arafat had played such a dominant role for so long that it was hard to imagine the Middle East without him. "As the leader of his people, he created an international awareness of, and concern about, the plight of the Palestinian people. He displayed unquestionable devotion to his work."

Britain's view was echoed by other European leaders, who focused on the more positive aspects of Mr Arafat's career while hoping for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"The Palestinian people have lost a symbol of the aspiration to assert their own national identity," said the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

"We hope that all Palestinians will peacefully commit themselves to bringing about the objective of two states, their own and Israel, living side by side in safety, freedom and social development."

In a last show of respect, Jacques Chirac, the French president, spent 10 minutes beside Mr Arafat's body at the Paris hospital where he died. "With him disappears a man of courage and conviction who embodied for 40 years the Palestinians' fight for the recognition of their national rights," he said in a statement. "France, like its partners in the European Union, will maintain, firmly and with conviction, its commitment to two states ... living side by side in peace and security."

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, said Mr Arafat had dedicated his life to the Palestinians' fight for "an independent state, which would coexist with Israel within recognised and secure borders".

US reactions were guarded. George Bush ambiguously described the death as "a significant moment in Palestinian history", while the secretary of state, Colin Powell, appealed for calm in the region.

Mr Arafat's Israeli detractors have said that he never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Bill Clinton said that the prime opportunity missed was four years ago when Mr Arafat turned his back on the Camp David peace deal. "I regret that in 2000 he missed the opportunity to bring that nation into being, and pray for the day when the dreams of the Palestinian people for a state and a better life will be realized in a just and lasting peace," the former US president said.

Nelson Mandela called Mr Arafat "one of the outstanding freedom fighters of this generation," while a papal spokesman praised his "great charisma".

The UN flag flew at half-mast in New York, though Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN's veteran Middle East envoy, offered a blunt view of Mr Arafat's achievements. "One of the reasons his credibility as a leader was undermined on the Palestinian side was an increasing agreement among the leadership and the Palestinian people that Arafat had led them in the wrong direction over the past four years," he told Norwegian state radio.

"He was like a surrealistic painting, full of contradictions, full of mystery, full of inconsistencies. He was complex, deep, superficial, rational, irrational, cold, warm. He may be the most fascinating person I have ever met."